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The FAA has adopted a new AD for all Rolls-Royce Deutschland Ltd andamp; Co KG BR700-725A1-12 engines. The directive, AD 2026-22-07, takes effect Dec. 14 and requires operators to revise maintenance or inspection programs to incorporate updated airworthiness limitations published by the manufacturer. The agency estimates that the required maintenance program revision will take approximately one labor hour per engine.The BR700 family powers some of the most recognizable and popular business jets, but this AD reaches only the BR725 variant on the Gulfstream G650 and G650ER. The Gulfstream G550 and the Bombardier Global Express, Global Express XRS and Global 5000 use BR710 variants and are not covered. Engine programs, inspections, life-limited parts and scheduled maintenance events already represent a significant portion of long-term operating costs for turbine aircraft. The updated limitations become another required element of the maintenance programs operators use to manage those engines throughout their service lives.Maintenance planning for large turbine engines is driven by time limits, inspection intervals, component lives and regulatory requirements. Manufacturers periodically revise maintenance requirements as fleets accumulate experience and engineering reviews identify changes to inspection intervals, part lives or maintenance thresholds. Those revisions eventually flow into required maintenance programs through actions such as this AD.The FAA is playing catch-up with this AD as the requirement is not new in Europe. EASA AD 2024-0136, issued in July 2024, tied it to Revision 27 of the engine's time limits manual, dated April 2024. EASA allowed 12 months to revise the maintenance program. With two years in the rearview mirror, the FAA has tightened the window for U.S. operators to 30 days after the effective date, or until Jan. 13, 2027.Why it mattersEngine maintenance and planning is already one of the largest recurring expenses in business aviation. While the FAA estimates the administrative cost of revising maintenance programs at $85 per engine, and lists no parts cost, the larger impact is the potential acceleration of future engine maintenance events and life-limited-part replacement schedules, adding to an ownership cost category that is already among the most expensive in aircraft operations. For scale, GlobalAir.com's latest operating cost report puts the G650ER at about $11,046 per flight hour, or roughly $4.97 million a year at 450 flight hours.